By Xinhua
Islamabad : Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon Wednesday arrived in the Pakistani capital on a three-day visit to “seek an assessment of political developments in Pakistan,” the Commonwealth said.
The Commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states, mostly the former British colonies.
McKinnon, likely to meet various political leaders, will enquire about plans for the elections to the national and provincial assemblies due to be held in the next few months, a Commonwealth secretariat statement said.
“The Secretary-General will reiterate the Commonwealth’s position with respect to the President’s retention of two offices, as spelt out by the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in Malta in November 2005,” the statement said.
At the Malta CHOGM in 2005, heads of government noted that the holding by the same person of the offices of Head of State and Chief of Army Staff is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy and the spirit of the Harare Commonwealth principles.
The visit coincided with a statement from a government lawyer that President General Musharraf would doff his uniform if he was re-elected to the office of president by the present assemblies.
Pakistan was readmitted to the Commonwealth in May 2004 after a five-year suspension following the 1999 coup, which brought the general to power.
The visit would be especially useful in view of the forthcoming meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in New York on Sep 29, which will review political developments in Pakistan as well as in Fiji.